aging gracefully

Dr. Peter Stormer had done his best to adapt to his surroundings near The Hub. He had no pod to go to, no family to share his life with, no friends to speak of, just his work.

He had a nodding acquaintanceship with Dr. Richard McTavish, and an eye on Dr. Leela Shamata despite the wedding ring on her finger and her obsequious husband, Takehiro. He harboured a notion Dr. Shamata felt her husband was not quite the catch she had imagined.

Stormer was a patient man, and felt he could tell Dr. Shamata would not tolerate her fool husband for much longer. He could wait.

If he was right about what he thought he knew, he could wait quite a long time, in fact.

Beyond that, Stormer's social circle was populated by the government people who had appointed him Secretary of Health; Melf and Richardson, Melf's sycophant Garland Boyette. Stormer kept his enemies close.

But inside himself, the warmth of his heart was only apparent when he was in the company of the two MedTechs he knew so well, the ones he'd arranged to bring into space, Aggie Brooks and Lori Railsback.

He would have felt paternal if he knew what that felt like, but for the fact that Rails was charming, unafraid with a sauciness that surpassed her unusual beauty and Aggie Brooks was just as beautiful in an entirely different way.

Aggie had come and told him of her feelings for Lori when he'd made it known they'd be coming. She'd thought it was only fair to give him a chance to redact the order, as it was a conflict of interest for her.

Silly girl couldn't see Rails was falling in love with her. No clue. Even Rails would deny it, he was sure. Lori was a straight woman falling in love with a gay one. It would just take some time, that's all.

Aggie thought it was because Lori was ashamed of her when she looked at other women. Stormer could see the anger flare in Lori's eyes, the quick slap on the shoulder, telling Aggie to "straighten up"; he saw it for what it was, simple jealousy.

He was also sure if he were on his deathbed, these two proxy daughters would be the last faces he would see.

This morning, however, he wasn't dying despite the horrible coffee and highly illegal cigarettes in hand, on the way to his office in the Executive Wing of The Hub.

And there they were, waiting for him.

"Good morning Aggie, Rails. What horrors are you dealing with today?"

Lori looked at Aggie. "Do you want to go first?"

Aggie shook her head. "No, you go first."

Lori missed it by looking down at her notes. "Well .."

Aggie let fly, keeping track on her fingers. "We are short of everything! We need bodies who can wash people, do laundry, keep the station clean, we need a plumber for the steel toilet system except plumbing in space is an esoteric science, apparently, I need a new voxbox, and we're short of everything from Tylenol and Aspirin to bandages and bandaids."

Lori smiled at Stormer. "So that .. what she said plus ... she called me 'Babe', didn't she?"

Stormer nodded and smiled. "A slip of the tongue I'm sure."

"Tongue? OMG! Dr. Stormer, it's not like that, it really isn't."

"I know. I know!" He led them towards his desk, motioned for them to sit down.

Aggie chose a chair in front of his desk. Lori sat at Stormer's end of the couch down the wall to his right.

He looked at her. "I think you'll be safe enough to take a seat out here where I can see you?" When she didn't move or speak, he added. "Unless you were saving the couch for activities after our morning sharing meeting?"

"No, Dr. Stormer." Rails darted to the chair beside Aggie immediately. Aggie leaned back with her arm over the back of her chair. Stormer laughed inside as Lori took in Aggie's magnificent bust.

"The bad news is we're low on everything, all things all the time now, Boyette is supposedly looking into food shortages which cannot possibly be true unless people are hoarding. I suspect therein lies the answer to the mystery of where the hell our first aid supplies and medications are, and the lack of volunteers is due to the fact that unless we find a suitable planet, sometime in the next week or so, the Children of God will go to Him and the rest of us will burn in hell which will make God very happy, or so I understand."

Lori had done some research and recovered from Aggie's bust. "They have to be hoarding on the pods. Can't Boyette go shake down these Pod Bosses and at least give us some semblance of the basics just in case one of them comes down with acute appendicitis?"

Stormer looked at her. "If I were a smart rat like Garland Boyette, I'd probably be running the black market myself." He wobbled his head, widened his eyes and made a popping sound with his tongue.

"You're kidding?" Lori thought about Boyette for a second. "What about the USAF supplies? Can we get access to them?"

He sighed. "I will call Commander Erhard as soon as we are done. Maybe we can amalgamate their unit with ours."

Aggie nodded. "That would help. Even their presence out here would help."

Stormer shook his head. "No, I'll see if we can get you moved inside the military boundaries, have the unit in there."

Aggie didn't like that idea. "Why? We just need supplies, we don't need to move."

Stormer treated them to another round of the now-familiar facial gymnastics. "Because Battle, Patrick & Erhard would shoot Boyette on sight if he showed up there." He raised his eyebrows again. "The military is not a big fan of the Richardson Administration and Boyette is Melf's personal Rottweiler."

Aggie looked at Lori, holding out a hand in mid-air. "That's a dog, a big one."

Lori slapped her hand away. "I know that, AGNES!"

Stormer managed to mask his amusement. "So if I can swing it, that would put you under Commander Erhard. Are you okay with that?"

Lori jumped in on that note. "Aggie would like that very much, I think."

Aggie rolled her eyes. "She had a nice suit, you said so yourself!"

"I wanted here out of our way, yours and mine, so I swore at her, okay? You have a problem with that?" Lori was all flashing eyes and sparkly anger.

Stormer sought peace and calm. "Ladies, it's an Air Force uniform. They're all the same."

Aggie never knew when to start or stop talking. "It's the way she carried herself in it, very classy look for her. Attractive woman."

Lori turned to her with a faux smile. "Maybe we'll all get one if we have to enlist to move down into quarters. Then you can share munchies in your copious free time."

"Shaddap already about Erhard in her uniform, please, I beg you. I'll see what I can do, all right?" Stormer was actually a bit angry now. "There is no solution to the supply problem beyond that unless you want to take on Boyette and his profiteers."

Aggie had fallen silent. Lori seemed emboldened by that. "If they're the solution, then bring them on." She looked down at her notes again. "Oh, and one more thing. We have Leon Freedman in MedLab."

Any mild amusement or irritation Stormer had vanished instantly. "Is he all right?"

Lori nodded, looked at Aggie. "I'd say he's fine. He had a bit of an altercation while he was walking around, he's doing well enough. We have a good supply of his stuff for some reason, so we have him sedated, but it's early yet."

"When can I see him for a psych evaluation?'

Aggie was secretly pleased Lori had included her again. "Rails is better on psych than I am, but I'd say two days out he'll be coherent, wouldn't you, Rails?"

Lori was ecstatic to be called on as the expert. "Yep, Aggie's right, 36-48 hours."

Stormer leaned forward on his elbows. "Don't let him out of your sights, keep him in restraints when you get a call, just let's not lose sight of Leon Freedman, understood?"

Lori squinted her eyes half shut. "Forgive me if this is rude, but how did Leon get up to L5?"

Stormer looked at her for several seconds. "He is a research subject of mine."

Lori had a better sense than Aggie had as to when to stop. "Oh, okay." She smiled at him. "We should get back to work."